Erik is a baseball fan who has been attending baseball games and snagging baseballs regularly since 2008.

9-5-09 PNC Park

I hadn’t been to a game since last Thursday, a span of 9 days had passed since I snagged my last baseball.

After missing Friday’s game, I was back in action today.

Batting practice was just beginning when I entered at 4:30, so there were no Easter Eggs to be found. However, there was a ball laying on the warning track near the bullpen.

As I started to set up my glove trick, a Pirates batter lofted a fly ball at my section. My glove was off of my hand. I dropped my glove to the ground. I realized the ball would fall short, so I hopped over a bleacher to get into a better position. The ball bounced on the warning track, hit the fence separating the bleachers from the bullpen, and caromed right to me. I caught the ball with my bare hands on the bounce. It was ball #1.

I then turned my attention back to the ball on the warning track. I had lost my rubber band when I was running into the bleachers (it fell off of my glove) and was working with a replacement rubber band that I didn’t have a feel for. Every rubber band is different and needs adjusted appropriately. After two readjustments, I reeled up the ball. However, as I was bringing it in, the glove hit to wall and the ball fell out. Great. Now the ball was partially under neath some padding and I would have to work more to get the ball. As I was making my second attempt, I was surrounded by groundskeepers.

I ended up finally getting the ball in the right spot so I could reel it in. It was ball #2. The groundskeepers thought the trick was really cool and asked a few questions about how it was done.

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